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to fulfill the promises. But lest, because the commands that were read were not written clearly about me, they might seem to some to have been written about certain others, I shall provide another, both confirming that the former ones were written about me, and openly proclaiming war against me, written in October of the eleventh indiction: "Most desired nephew of my majesty, *protovestiarios* lord Andronikos Palaiologos; the reports of all of you were delivered to my majesty and were read, and I have fully approved all of you concerning all that you report. My majesty has also responded and given orders in detail to all of you with the galley, or rather with the most desired nephew of my majesty, Asan, lord Michael, your cousin; and from him each one of 1.235 you will learn in greater detail the decree of my majesty. But lest, should there be some delay from the sea for the galley, you be ignorant of the general decree of my majesty, behold, my majesty also issues orders and makes it known to you by land, that so many and such as you are found there, that if even one and only one of you were in those parts, he would have been sufficient for the battle of my grandson; how much more so that you are found to be so many and such as you are? There is nothing more to say. And from now on I unleash my tethered leopard, and you do as your intelligence may suggest, for I too am already setting out." Such things the emperor commanded his nephew, having nothing to charge me with, but himself first breaking the treaties and the oaths. And so that you may know that he also used many collaborators for the war against me and had been preparing for it for a long time, I shall also provide another letter from this Kokalas, sent to his son-in-law the *protovestiarios*, which runs thus: "First, our lord the emperor was vexed with you all, or rather with you, that you write and report nothing of what you are doing and how you are faring; but now he has accepted that you have written, but he blamed you for sending your reports so incautiously, and if they had happened to fall into the hands of the emperor's grandson, it would have been admittedly known that the present battle was set in motion before its time and with a premeditated purpose. 1.236 Which was not done well; but just as we have at present put the command and this present letter inside a packet, and who can imagine that there is something inside the packet? So also should you do; and from now on begin, because, as you will also learn from the command, behold, the emperor is also beginning. However, it seems to me that before you hear the beginning, you will see the end. For all the archons and the sons of archons who are with the emperor's grandson have been appointed by the emperor, and they have his benefactions both through administrative posts and through golden bulls; and all are ready and await the command of our lord the holy emperor, so that if he should command them, they will bring his grandson bound into his hands; and from this moment on, you too take care, so that you may show a work of the knowledge and experience which you have for acting." From all these things, therefore, you yourselves will judge which of us has broken the oaths. So that if I myself, after such a manifest transgression of what was sworn, have done something outside the agreements, it is neither just nor reasonable to be accused of perjury. Therefore, if I have also taken money, as they themselves say, contrary to the agreements, I ought not to be punished, since the agreements have been broken. But I will prove that I myself have kept my oath in taking the money, even apart from these things. For in the 1.237 oaths it is written that from the public funds, both for the expenses of my household and of the empress my wife, and further also of the mercenary army, as much money should be supplied to me as is written in the agreements; and this not simply, but through written oaths, as can be seen from the emperor's golden bull to me. From those times, therefore, when the oaths were made until now, for four years

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πληρώσειν τὰ ἐπηγγελμένα. ἵνα δὲ διὰ τὸ μὴ καθαρῶς τὰ ἀναγνωσθέντα προστάγματα γράφειν περὶ ἐμοῦ, περί τινων ἄλλων τισὶ δόξωσι γεγράφθαι, ἕτερον παρέξομαι, τά τε πρότερα ὡς περὶ ἐμοῦ εἴησαν γεγραμμένα βεβαιοῦν, καὶ τὸν πρὸς ἐμὲ πόλεμον κηρύττον ἐμφανῶς, γραφὲν Ὀκτωβρίῳ τῆς ἑνδεκάτης ἰνδικτιῶνος· «περιπόθητε ἀνεψιὲ τῆς βασιλείας μου πρωτοβεστιάριε κύριε Ἀνδρόνικε Παλαιολόγε· αἱ ἀναφοραὶ ὑμῶν πάντων διεκομίσθησαν εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν μου καὶ ὑπανεγνώσθησαν, καὶ ὑπεραπεδεξάμην πάντας ὑμᾶς περὶ πάντων ὧν ἀναφέρετε. ἀπελογήσατο καὶ διωρίσατο καὶ ἡ βασιλεία μου κατὰ μέρος πρὸς πάντας ὑμᾶς μετὰ τοῦ κατέργου, μᾶλλον δὲ μετὰ τοῦ περιποθήτου ἀνεψιοῦ τῆς βασιλείας μου τοῦ Ἀσάνη κυρίου Μιχαὴλ τοῦ ἐξαδελφοῦ σου· καὶ ἐξ ἐκείνου μέλλετε γνωρίσειν εἷς ἕκαστος ἀφ' 1.235 ὑμῶν πλατυκώτερον τὸν ὁρισμὸν τῆς βασιλείας μου. μήπως δὲ, γενομένης τινὸς ἀργίας παρὰ τῆς θαλάσσης εἰς τὸ κάτεργον, ἀγνοῆτε τὸν καθόλου ὁρισμὸν τῆς βασιλείας μου, ἰδοὺ καὶ διὰ ξηρᾶς διορίζεται καὶ δηλοποιεῖ ὑμῖν ἡ βασιλεία μου, ὅτι τόσοι καὶ τοιοῦτοι εὑρίσκεσθε αὐτόθι, ὅτι εἴπερ εἷς καὶ μόνος ὑμῶν ἦν εἰς τὰ αὐτόθι μέρη, ἀρκετὸς ἔμελλεν εἶναι εἰς τὴν τοῦ ἐγγόνου μου μάχην· πόσῳ μᾶλλον ὅτι εὑρίσκεσθε τοσοῦτοι καὶ τοιοῦτοι, οἷοι εὑρίσκεσθε; λόγος οὐδείς. καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ νῦν λύω τὸν πάρδον μου τὸν δεδεμένον, καὶ ποιεῖτε ᾗ ἂν ὑμῖν ἡ σύνεσις ὑφηγῆται, ὅτι καὶ ἐγὼ ἤδη ὁρμῶ.» τοιαῦτα μὲν βασιλεὺς ἐπέταττε τῷ ἀνεψιῷ οὐδὲν ἔχων ἐγκαλεῖν ἐμοὶ, ἀλλ' αὐτὸς πρῶτος λύων τὰς σπονδὰς καὶ τοὺς ὅρκους. ἵνα δὲ εἰδῆτε, ὅτι καὶ πολλοῖς ἐχρῆτο συνεργοῖς πρὸς τὸν πόλεμον τὸν κατ' ἐμοῦ καὶ ἐκ πολλοῦ τοῦ χρόνου παρεσκευάζετο πρὸς αὐτὸν, καὶ ἑτέραν παρέξομαι γραφὴν τοῦ Κωκαλᾶ τουτουῒ πρὸς τὸν γαμβρὸν πρωτοβεστιάριον ἀπεσταλμένην ἔχουσαν οὑτωσί· «πρῶτον μὲν ἐβαρύνετο καθ' ὑμῶν ὁ αὐθέντης ἡμῶν ὁ βασιλεὺς, μᾶλλον δὲ κατὰ σοῦ, πῶς οὐδὲν γράφετε καὶ ἀναφέρετε τί ποιεῖτε καὶ πῶς πράττετε· τὰ νῦν δὲ ἀπεδέξατο μὲν ὅτι ἐγράψατε, ἐμέμψατο δὲ ὑμῖν ὅπως οὕτως ἀπερισκέπτως ἐπέμψατε τὰς ἀναφορὰς ὑμῶν, καὶ εἴπερ συνέβαινεν ἐμπεσεῖν εἰς τὰς χεῖρας τοῦ ἐγγόνου τοῦ βασιλέως, ὁμολογουμένως γνωσθῆναι ἔμελλεν, ὅτι πρὸ καιροῦ καὶ μετὰ μεμεριμνημένου σκοποῦ 1.236 ἐκινήθη ἡ παροῦσα μάχη. ὅπερ οὐ γέγονε καλῶς· ἀλλὰ ὥσπερ κατὰ τὸ παρὸν ἡμεῖς τὸ πρόσταγμα καὶ τὴν παροῦσαν γραφὴν ἐβάλομεν ἐντὸς πούκλου, καὶ τίς δύναται ἐνθυμηθῆναι, ὅτι ἐστί τι ἐντὸς τοῦ πούκλου; οὕτως ποιεῖτε καὶ ὑμεῖς· καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ νῦν ἄρξασθε, ὅτι, καθὼς καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ προστάγματος μέλλεις μαθεῖν, ἰδοὺ καὶ ὁ βασιλεὺς ἄρχεται. ὅμως δοκεῖ μοι, ὅτι πρὸ τοῦ ἀκοῦσαι τὴν ἀρχὴν μέλλετε ἰδεῖν τὸ τέλος. πάντες γὰρ οἱ μετὰ τοῦ ἐγγόνου τοῦ βασιλέως εὑρισκόμενοι ἄρχοντες καὶ τὰ ἀρχοντόπουλα, κατεστάθησαν ὑπὸ τοῦ βασιλέως, καὶ τὰς αὐτοῦ εὐεργεσίας ἔχουσι διά τε οἰκονομιῶν διά τε χρυσοβούλλων· καὶ πάντες εἰσὶν ἕτοιμοι καὶ ἐκδέχονται ὁρισμὸν τοῦ αὐθέντου ἡμῶν τοῦ βασιλέως τοῦ ἁγίου, ἵνα ἐάνπερ ὁρίσῃ αὐτοῖς, φέρωσι τὸν ἔγγονον αὐτοῦ δεδεμένον εἰς τὰς χεῖρας· καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ αὐτοῦ νῦν ἐπιμελήθητι καὶ σὺ, ἵνα δείξῃς ἔργον τῆς γνώσεως καὶ τῆς πείρας, ἧς ἔχεις πρὸς τὸ πράττειν.» ἐκ τούτων μὲν οὖν ἁπάντων, ὁπότερος λέλυκε τοὺς ὅρκους αὐτοὶ κρινεῖτε. ὥστ' εἰ καὶ αὐτὸς μετὰ τὴν οὕτω περιφανῆ παράβασιν τῶν ὀμωμοσμένων ἔξω τι εἴργασμαι τῶν συνθηκῶν, οὐ δίκαιον οὐδὲ λόγον ἔχον ἐπιορκίαν ἐγκαλεῖν. ὥστε εἰ καὶ χρήματα εἴληφα, ὡς αὐτοί φασι, παρὰ τὰς συνθήκας, οὐκ ὀφείλειν δίκην λελυμένων τῶν συνθηκῶν. ἐγὼ δὲ καὶ τούτων χωρὶς εὐορκεῖν ἀποδείξω ἐμαυτὸν τὰ χρήματα εἰληφώς. ἐν τοῖς 1.237 ὅρκοις γὰρ γέγραπται, ὡς ἂν ἐκ τῶν δημοσίων χρημάτων τῶν τε τῆς ἐμῆς οἰκίας ἕνεκα ἀναλωμάτων καὶ βασιλίδος τῆς ἐμῆς γυναικὸς, ἕτι δὲ καὶ τῆς μισθοφόρου στρατιᾶς χρήματα ἐμοὶ χορηγεῖσθαι ὅσα γέγραπται ἐν ταῖς συνθήκαις· καὶ τοῦτο οὐχ ἁπλῶς, ἀλλὰ δι' ὅρκων ἐγγράφων, ὡς πάρεστιν ὁρᾷν ἐκ χρυσοβούλλου βασιλέως τοῦ πρὸς ἐμέ. ἐκ τοίνυν τῶν καιρῶν ἐκείνων ὅτε ἐγεγένηντο οἱ ὅρκοι ἄχρι καὶ νῦν τέτταρες ἐπ' ἔτεσι